A doctoral advisor (also dissertation director, dissertation advisor; or doctoral supervisor) is a member of a

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

faculty whose role is to guide

graduate student Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have ...

s who are candidates for a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

, helping them select coursework, as well as shaping, refining and directing the students' choice of sub-

discipline Discipline is the self-control that is gained by requiring that rules or orders be obeyed, and the ability to keep working at something that is difficult. Disciplinarians believe that such self-control is of the utmost importance and enforce a ...

in which they will be examined or on which they will write a dissertation. Students generally choose advisors based on their areas of interest within their discipline, their desire to work closely with particular graduate faculty, and the willingness and availability of those faculty to work with them. In some countries, the student's advisor is the chair of the dissertation committee or the examination committee. In some cases, though, the person who serves those roles may be different from the faculty member who has most closely advised the student. For instance, in the Dutch academic system, only full professors (''hoogleraren'') and associate professors (since 2017) have the " ius promovendi", the right to chair doctoral examinations. Students who have been advised by lower-ranked faculty members will have a full or associate professor as their official advisor (or ''promotor'') and their actual advisor as ''co-promotor''.VSNY Guidelines
(.pdf file). Retrieved 13 December 2019. In other countries, such as Spain, the doctoral advisor has the role of a mentor, but is not allowed to form part of the examination committee. This is a body of five experts independently selected by the rectorate among ten candidates proposed by the university's department. An

academic genealogy An academic genealogy (or scientific genealogy) organizes a family tree of scientists and scholars according to mentoring relationships, often in the form of dissertation supervision relationships, and not according to genetic relationships as ...

may be traced based on the student's doctoral advisors, going up and down the lines of academic "descent" in a manner analogous to a traditional

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

References

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External links

Supervision of PhD students
(with some focus on disagreements)
Cambridge example
Academic terminology Academia